ABSTRACT
Feminist immigration research and theory proved that women have their own reasons for participating in transnational migration. As immigration research on women advances, it has become clear that there are a variety of reasons why women migrate. The interviews with Guatemalan women in Los Angeles validate that the findings of migration research on female migration in Africa and of the African diaspora. The political violence in Guatemala contributed to women's desire to leave Guatemala. It proved that rural Mayan women were more affected by the impact of the civil war. One of the major contributions of the study is to demonstrate how spousal relationships in combination with women's limited access to sufficient income caused Guatemalan women's independent immigration to the United States. This study presents an exclusively female perspective on the problem.
